


The People I've Left (the one's that I've kept)

by twinswrite (orphan_account)



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:06:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8650735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/twinswrite
Summary: The one where Hope has been in Europe for sixteen years, Kelley is still healing, Christen just wants everyone to be happy, Ashlyn has a "fight-me" complex, all of their children are angsty teenagers and Lauren just wants to go through one family dinner without a fight erupting. It's another au that nobody asked for.





	1. The People I've Left (the one's that I've kept)

**Author's Note:**

> HI WE'RE BACK WITH SOMETHING NEW AND IF YOU HATE IT THAT'S COOL BUT IF NOT THAT'S COOL TOO.

 

“All I’m saying is that, in a hand to hand fight, I’d kick Rhyan’s ass.” Quinn O’Hara shrugged, chewing her licorice whip with her mouth open while she stared through a pair of old binoculars . 

 

Tristan Heath scoffed, shaking her quiff of curly chestnut hair in utter amusement, while she joined Quinn in the consumption of their favorite snack. 

 

“Listen you can’t kick Rhyan’s ass.  _ I  _ can’t kick Rhy’s ass and she’s my sister.” 

 

The two best friends had been trapped in the twins childhood tree house for the last two hours. Partly due to rain and partly due to spying on the new neighbors who were moving in across the street, replacing the Batista family as Bati and Allie had moved back to Portland from Chapel Hill. Quinn was excited at the prospect of potentially adding another member to their motley crew of friends while Tristan wasn’t as eager. 

To Tristan, she and Quinn had been born into their predetermined friend group consisting of their mother’s teammates kids. There was Cassius Dwyer and Luke Schilling, the two oldest boys at 16, followed closely by Lexie Harris, Quinn O’Hara, Silas Sauerbrunn and Jrue Holiday with twins Tristan and Rhyan bringing up the rear at barely 15 years old. Tristan was perfectly content with her pals and she intended to keep their family the same forever, the way God intended. 

 

“Eyes on unknown specimens entering quadrant four” Quinn trained her binoculars in on three teenagers sprinting up the north end of the block in the beginnings of a famous Carolina thunderstorm.

 

"Gotta keep up Cash!" a muscular girl with a mess of dark brown waves taunted as she took a slight lead ahead of her friends. Cash Dwyer, taller than the girl beside him, gritted his teeth and kicked his sprint to rival his friend's long strides. 

"God DAMN it Rhyan"

The third member of their group, a smaller boy with bleach blonde hair, let out a war cry while his second wind came through so he could match the pace of the other two. 

Quinn and Tristan watched, cheering Rhyan on and teasing the boys,  as the trio kept edging one another out for first place. They seemed to be in a three way tie as they all dove into the short green grass underneath the tree house. The trio burst into a fit of giggles at the end of their race, high-fiving each other from their positions on the ground. 

 

“AND THE WINNER, OF THE TWENTY-THIRTY TWO OLYMPICS IN THE SIX MILE RACE IS RHYAN ALEXANDRA HEATH!” Quinn channeled her best emcee voice as Rhyan ran circles around the boys with her arms stretched wide in true Christen Press fashion. 

 

“I AM SPEED. I AM FITNESS. I AM SOCCER” 

 

“Rhyan’s officially faster than you Cash, how do you feel about that?” Tristan teased the pouting teenager. 

 

“Yeah Dwyer,” Quinn smirked “you’re slow as shit”

 

The sixteen year old boy huffed and threw his middle finger up at Quinn before standing up and clamoring up into the tree house with Silas and Rhyan hot on his heels. 

 

“While we were becoming better athletes, what were you two dweebs doing all afternoon?” Silas situated himself on Cash’s lap, peering out of one of the small windows. 

 

“Yeah, also where’s Lexie?” Cash looked around for their missing member. 

 

Tristan checked her phone, pulling up Lexie’s text message she sent about an hour beforehand. 

“Lexie’s grandparents are coming into town to surprise Aunt Kriegs for her birthday so Aunt Ash took Lex to the airport with her”

 

“Hell yeah, Grandma DebDeb is coming to town!” Rhyan and Quinn cheered. 

 

“Oh sweet Jesus that means presents.” Silas sighed happily “anyway what’d you find out about the neighbors?”

 

Tristan and Quinn took turns briefing their friends about their extensive research findings of absolutely nothing. Only the movers had been there, finishing the job in about two hours. And now that the car had pulled into the driveway of the Batista’s old house, the group of teenagers were fascinated. 

 

All five cousins were glued to the small windows, watching for any sort of movement within the black BMW. 

 

    “What the hell are they waiting for?” Cash grumbled, growing impatient. 

 

    Quinn shrugged “Maybe they're nervous. I'm gonna go say hi.” 

 

At Quinn's suggestion, the other four shouted “NO” in unison, catching their freckled friend off guard. 

 

    “Dude you're like, way too nosy to be their first impression. Let me go do it” Silas insisted, standing up. 

 

Tristan rolled her eyes and pulled the hem of Silas’s Carolina Panthers shirt with enough force to bring the boy back down flat on his ass. 

 

    “No way Shy-las. You'll choke. Remember how you clammed up meeting Uncle Anson for the first time?” 

 

    “I WAS SIX” Silas exclaimed “and peeing your pants in front of your childhood hero is a totally normal thing.” 

 

His friends all burst out laughing, remembering that fateful day on Fetzer field. 

 

“If anyone is going to greet the neighbors it's gonna be the twins.” Cash decided. 

 

Rhyan and Tristan gave their oldest cousin matching skeptical looks. 

 

“Uhm what?” 

 

Quinn nodded “Yeah you guys are the nicest, plus everyone likes Rhyan and Tristan is super chill. So,” Quinn motioned to the opening in the tree house floor “get those sweet twin asses out there.” 

 

The twins, realizing that they weren't getting out of this, grumbled and dropped out of the tree house, walking in the rain towards the new family. 

 

Cash, Silas and Quinn watched as the twins made it across the street and knocked on the window of the BMW. 

 

Quinn squinted through her binoculars, seeing Rhyan’s mouth move a mile a minute. 

 

“ _ They better not fuck this up _ ” 

-

“So this is Chapel Hill huh?” Camille Stevens remarked, staring out the car window as it idly rolled past a slowly flooding Fetzer Field. Tarheel blue clashed with the gray Carolina thunderstorm and Camille felt slightly violated by the cheery UNC banners interrupting her otherwise dismal day. 

 

Her mother nodded wordlessly, a reaction that Camille had come to expect for the last six months. Cam searched her mother’s cold blue eyes for any sort of familiar warmth that occurred when the older woman spoke of her memories playing against the Tarheels. The sixteen year old girl sighed and decided to scroll through her phone until the car pulled into her new driveway. At least the silence was better than two adults screaming at each other for hours.

 

Honestly, the divorce hadn’t come as a surprise to Camille. Her parents had been unhappy with each other her entire life. They were fire and ice, constantly at war with each other with few moments of serenity in between. It especially didn’t help when Hope had decided to quit her comfortable consulting job with FIFA in favor of becoming a simple goalkeepers coach for the University of North Carolina. Never-mind that Hope took a fifty percent pay cut and a trans-Atlantic move, the real issue was that she did it all without telling Camille’s father. 

 

Camille should have been upset but that's what her parents did. They made decisions based on  _ their _ own emotions and informed each other, as well as Camille, at the last possible moment.

 

And Hope’s decision sent Jeremy packing and landed Camille on a twelve hour flight from Zurich to Raleigh and stuck in a car driving the forty minutes to Chapel Hill. 

 

What a great start to junior year. 

 

The Solo-Stevens women spent the rest of the drive in silence. Hope tapping the steering wheel every so often to calm her nerves and Camille tapping mindlessly away on her phone. 

 

Throughout the moving process, Hope hadn’t been particularly worried. But now, turning onto Laurel Hill road, Hope felt her heart rise into her chest. She knew coming back to the states, back to the exact town where so many of her former teammates had come of age was going to be emotional. She had spent the last sixteen years in self-imposed exile, away from the media chaos surrounding the US National team to hide in beautiful Zurich where she could be taking the shots at FIFA headquarter instead of saving them. 

 

But now, as she drove at a high speed of five miles an hour behind three teenagers, Hope wasn't so sure she was ready to plunge herself back into the American soccer scene. 

 

“These assholes need to move” Camille huffed. 

 

“Hey language” Hope halfheartedly chided her daughter as they pulled into their new home’s driveway. 

 

“What? Who runs in the middle of a rainstorm, in the middle of the STREET might I add?” 

 

Hope raised her hand in protest “UHM your mother does!” 

 

Camille rolled her eyes and smiled, her hazel eyes lighting up with amusement. Hope’s heart warmed, her daughter had been so quiet, so distant these days that even the tiniest bit of “happy-go-lucky” Camille was enough to send Hope over the moon. 

 

“Okay but you're crazy. Oh Mom, someone's coming” 

 

Hope turned in her seat and felt all the color drain from her face, her heart now in her throat and threatening to come out through her mouth much like the turkey pesto wrap she had for lunch. 

 

The two humans standing expectantly outside of the BMW had green eyes Hope had all but forgotten in her exile. Green eyes that had sought her out on the field after every heart pounding victory and soul crushing loss. Green eyes who had listened to every qualm Hope’s heart had and green eyes who, with tears in them, sent Hope off to Switzerland promising not to tell a soul. 

 

“Mom stop being weird,” Camille murmured, wary of the obnoxiously peppy twins standing in the pouring rain “roll the window down.”

 

Hope did as her daughter instructed and rolled the window down. The teenagers, one with braided bangs and a high ponytail while the other sported a simple backwards snapback and a braid, waved vigorously. Both girls flashed their set of orthodontia, exposing the Cardinal red and Carolina blue rubber band chains around the brackets. Their matching gray shirts and Stanford running shorts gave Hope all the clues she needed as to whose daughters they were. 

 

“Hi! Sorry to bother you but we saw the movers moving in your stuff this morning,” Cardinal red brackets chirped. 

 

“Not we,  _ I _ did.” Carolina blue brackets interrupted. 

 

Her sister rolled her eyes and waved her twin on “Anyway, we wanted to introduce ourselves. I’m Rhyan Heath and this idiot is my twin Tristan. We live in the navy blue house across the street.” 

 

Hope and Camille shyly waved. These twins were almost a creepy kind of friendly. In Switzerland Hope and Camille had gotten used to keeping to themselves in their neighborhood. Sure they ended up making friends but that was after weeks, maybe even months, of amicable nods and polite waves in passing. 

 

These two girls were raised heavily in Southern hospitality and it freaked Camille out. She needed the terror twins to leave her property immediately.

 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Camille and this is my mother Hope. We’ve got some moving to do before we’re late for dinner with friends” Camille lied smoothly “talk to you later!”

Hope was equally as shocked as the twins as Camille hastily hopped out of the car, grabbing the shoe box at her feet and power walked towards the door. 

 

The twins shrugged and turned their attention back to Hope. 

 

“Well, we better be going but just so you know, there’s a block party next Saturday for our Aunt’s birthday and y’all’re  more than welcome to join. It’s a potluck so bring a salad or something. If y’all need anything just holler.” 

 

And with that, Rhyan and Tristan sprinted off, scurrying across the street and up into the beautifully crafted tree house perched in a regal looking maple tree. Hope sat in her car and made eye contact with Camille through the windshield. 

 

_ This was going to be one hell of a reunion.  _

  
  


  
  



	2. So Much History In These Streets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camille meets some new friends on her walk to school, Lexie Harris-Krieger is demanding and Rhyan just wants to drive in peace.

“Camille, let’s go! Dash is here to walk you!” Hope called from the bottom of the stairs.

  
Camille poked her head out of her bedroom door “I’ll be down super quick, I have to grab my backpack.”

  
It was Cam’s first day at her new high school and she was beyond nervous. It was actually her first day in a large group setting.

Growing up, Hope and Jerramy had traveled throughout Europe so often that they had ended up homeschooling their daughter. Sure Camille had academic co-ops with no more than ten other kids her age and she played recreational sports, but other than that Cam had no prior public educational experience.

  
So it was fitting that her mother decided to send her to a private high school with a little under five hundred students that had known each other since they were four years old in TK. Camille Stevens was once again the outsider.

  
Checking her khaki pleated skirt, navy blue blazer and white button down one last time for any wrinkles or stray cat hairs, Camille grabbed her backpack and lunch and skipped downstairs.

  
“Hey Dash!” the sixteen year old threw her arms around her cousin, who eagerly returned her affections.

  
Dash Hollins was a stocky seventeen year old with one of the best golf swings in the country and the worst soccer feet known to man.

His parents were the only ties to North Carolina and the Solo-Stevens women that Camille knew of. Carli, Brian, Dash and his little sister Anna had met up with Cam’s family in Paris every year during Bastille day. From an early age they had a forged a strong friendship, both feeling like outsiders among their peers due to their unique upbringings and the celebrity status their parents seemed to have.

  
“What’s up Cam?” Dash hitched his backpack tighter to his muscular frame “Ready to brave your first day in Chapel Hill?”

  
Camille grinned and nodded. “Ready, see ya later Mom!”

  
“Bye Cam, bye Dash”

  
Hope kissed her daughter on the forehead and sent the two teens out into the chilly fall morning. She watched as Dash and Cam hustled along the sidewalk, chatting animatedly the entire way. Hope studied the teens until they were out of sight and then scurried into the house to get ready for her own big day.  
~  
“Who’s walking with Golf boy?” Lexie Harris-Krieger wondered aloud from the passenger seat.

  
Lexie, Quinn, Tristan and Jrue were piled into Rhyan’s newly acquired Jeep heading to school.While Tristan had opted for a week long surfing vacation for making the honor roll, Rhyan had asked to attend Drivers Ed and was given Mallory’s car when the oldest Press-Heath daughter went off to UCLA.

  
“New kid maybe?” Quinn was met with protests as she climbed over Jrue Holiday to get a look out of her window.

  
“Yeah that’s definitely the new kid,” Tristan confirmed, munching on a granola bar, “she hauled ass out of the car when Rhy and I went to introduce ourselves.”

  
“YOU GOT TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES?!” Lexie squealed with jealousy “I miss everything good. Rhyan, Rhy pull over I wanna talk to her.”

  
“Now?!” the youngest Press-Heath gave her friend an incredulous look.

  
“Yes, immediately Heath” Lexie commanded, sounding so perfectly like Ali that it stunned the rest of the car into silence.

  
Rhyan slowed down and pulled up beside an unassuming Dash Hollins and Camille Stephens.

  
“HEY GOLF BOY” Lexie yelled, startling the pair.

  
Dash jumped about a mile high, earning a laugh from the car full of girls and a glare from Camille. Dash composed himself, straightening his gray tie and pulling at the sleeves of his blazer before addressing the group of girls he had grown up with.

  
Although he had spent almost every other holiday season with the girls, Cash, Silas and Lucas and yet Dash still felt like an outsider. Dash didn’t live on Laurel Hill like the other families, he lived on the other side of town and his parents kept mostly to themselves minus the two times a year they went to dinner at the Holiday home.

  
“Hi Lexie, what do you want?” Dash sighed as he ran a hand through his short honey colored hair.

  
“I don’t think we’ve met yet,” Lexie looked past Dash and onto Camille, sticking her hand out of the window “I’m Lexie Harris-Krieger, I live about five doors down from you.”

  
Camille, now feeling slightly annoyed and a little skeptical of Lexie’s intentions, narrowed her eyes and shook Lexie’s hand. “I’m Camille, I just moved here yesterday.”

  
Dash craned his neck to get a look inside the tinted Jeep. It wasn’t Lexie’s older sister Jenna’s car, she had a BMW, and it wasn’t a car he recognized as being one of the girls’.

  
“Who’s in the car HK?”

  
Both of the Jeep’s windows rolled down and a groan escaped Dash’s mouth. Of-fucking-course Quinn, Jrue and the Twins were all driving the four blocks to school together. Individually the girls were brilliant, using their intelligence for good. But as a group, Dash knew they were a devious and mischievous entity, their combined genius too much for the average Joe to handle.

  
“What’s good Hollins?” Quinn cheesed

  
“Heyyyyyyy Daschel” Tristan and Jrue threw up peace signs.

  
“Hi Dash, hi Camille” Rhyan called from the driver's seat, causing Dash to sigh in relief at the sight of the olive skinned striker.

  
Growing up, although she was the youngest out of all of their cousins, Rhyan’s calm and rational presence had balanced out the other crazy and often times obnoxious personalities. Dash had always liked Rhyan best, after Silas of course but that was different.

  
The girls chatted with Dash about the upcoming family dinner the next night, how they thought their Aunt Julie was pregnant again (she definitely was) and took bets on which one of them was slated to be victim to their Aunt Kling’s weird baking ideas (probably Cash).

  
During the conversation among the soccer cousins, Camille, who genuinely didn't know what to make of the five girls crammed in a Jeep, shifted uneasily on her feet.

  
Dash noticed Cam’s anxiety and nudged her gently. When her pleading eyes met his, Dash took that as his cue to cut the conversation.

  
“Guys,” Dash looked at his phone “we’re gonna be late for first period and if I remember correctly Quinn gets detention if she's late this year in Mister Werry’s class.”

  
Quinn narrowed her blue eyes in a dark glare.

  
“First of all just call him Uncle Matt like the rest of us and secondly, fuck off Golf boy”

  
“Quinn shut up and loosen your tie, Dash is right we can't be late. See you later D! Camille?” Jrue called as the pair had continued their walk to school

  
Camille turned and offered up a shy smile.

  
“We’re having a little beginning of the year get together at my house tonight and you're invited. Dress code is Derby Days, Dash will explain. See y’all at school!” With a killer smile and a wave of her hand, Jrue and the girls drove off, leaving Dash chuckling and Camille confused.

  
“Derby Days?”

  
Dash gave Cam a knowing smile and threw an arm around his friend.

  
“Welcome to the South Mealworm, welcome to the South.”

 


End file.
